villagehorse
Lieutenant General
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Hard to take your eyes off Scarlett Johansson. Good film, possibly even better in 3D. Lots of action, cgi great. This would appeal to most people. Robin.
Ghost in the shell (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter villagehorse
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BLReed
Sergeant Major
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- Nov 22, 2009
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I'll skip it. Nothing about it interests me.
http://www.blu-ray.com/Ghost-in-the-Shell/413197/#Review
http://www.blu-ray.com/Ghost-in-the-Shell/413197/#Review
theBaron
Major
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- Mar 27, 2008
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I'm a fan of the anime franchise, so I will go to see this, just to see how they handle the story. I've seen clips and read previews enough to know that there are some differences. Also, I don't generally care for live-action versions of animated subjects. I don't see the need, since animation is an art form in its own right; that is, I'm satisfied with the animation. But if this is done well, it'll be worth seeing.
"Ghost in the Shell" is an interesting series (shows and movies), and the GitS 'verse is plausible, extrapolating from technologies that we have today-or rather, that were around in the late 80s and early 90s, when Shirow Masamune first wrote the comic book and then the first movie was produced.
Prost!
Brad
"Ghost in the Shell" is an interesting series (shows and movies), and the GitS 'verse is plausible, extrapolating from technologies that we have today-or rather, that were around in the late 80s and early 90s, when Shirow Masamune first wrote the comic book and then the first movie was produced.
Prost!
Brad
hotel3alpha
Command Sergeant Major
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- May 24, 2013
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HYUGE Scarlett Johansen may have to go see!
John from Texas
John from Texas
theBaron
Major
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I saw Ghost in the Shell last night, and as a fan of the anime, I was not disappointed. The production does a good job of translating the anime to live action. It captures the look of the GitS world very well, and it also presents the characters very much as they are in the original stories.
The film is based mostly on the 1995 animated movie, which was the first film version of Shirow Masamune's comic book (or "graphic novel" if you prefer). The Major and her team, Public Security Section 9, are on the trail of a master hacker who is responsible for a series of murders. Some elements from the later series, "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex" are included. The restaurant scene, in which geisha robots are hacked and used to attack the VIPs gathered there, is from the first episode of "Stand Alone Complex". But it works well in the plot of this movie, and it's also pretty cool, visually.
Scarlett Johansson is very good as the Major, the first successful cyborg (human brain in a completely synthetic body, in her case), who is driven by her strong sense of duty to find the hacker, but who is also plagued by flashbacks to fragments of memories which may or may not be her own. I think Johansson has really established herself for action-heroine roles. I also enjoyed Takeshi Kitano as Aramaki, the chief of Section 9, who is the wise old elder figure that every anime has, and whose foes let his age lull them at their own peril. An interesting touch in this film is that Kitano delivers his lines in Japanese, and we have subtitles. His team speak in English, and at his very first line, I thought-this makes sense, since they are all cyberized to one degree or another, and their communications are translated instantly. In any case, it works.
Most of the action focuses on the Major, and her teammate Batou, and while we see the rest of the team members, there isn't enough time in the movie to learn more of their stories, as there was in the two series. Here is where there was one change that I thought was not really needed. The character of Borma is replaced with a British woman of vaguely Pakistani or Indian ethnicity, with an Eastender's accent. Not really necessary, but Borma is minor even among the secondary characters in the series--I don't recall ever seeing his backstory in either series, for example, while the rest of the team has an "origins" episode of his own. Also, the screenwriters probably wanted to broaden the appeal to other audiences.
In any case, this is good enough that I'll pay to see it again on the big screen, and this is also something that I'll buy to have in my library. And given the amount of existing content in the anime series and movies, I think there will be a sequel ere long.
Prost!
Brad
The film is based mostly on the 1995 animated movie, which was the first film version of Shirow Masamune's comic book (or "graphic novel" if you prefer). The Major and her team, Public Security Section 9, are on the trail of a master hacker who is responsible for a series of murders. Some elements from the later series, "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex" are included. The restaurant scene, in which geisha robots are hacked and used to attack the VIPs gathered there, is from the first episode of "Stand Alone Complex". But it works well in the plot of this movie, and it's also pretty cool, visually.
Scarlett Johansson is very good as the Major, the first successful cyborg (human brain in a completely synthetic body, in her case), who is driven by her strong sense of duty to find the hacker, but who is also plagued by flashbacks to fragments of memories which may or may not be her own. I think Johansson has really established herself for action-heroine roles. I also enjoyed Takeshi Kitano as Aramaki, the chief of Section 9, who is the wise old elder figure that every anime has, and whose foes let his age lull them at their own peril. An interesting touch in this film is that Kitano delivers his lines in Japanese, and we have subtitles. His team speak in English, and at his very first line, I thought-this makes sense, since they are all cyberized to one degree or another, and their communications are translated instantly. In any case, it works.
Most of the action focuses on the Major, and her teammate Batou, and while we see the rest of the team members, there isn't enough time in the movie to learn more of their stories, as there was in the two series. Here is where there was one change that I thought was not really needed. The character of Borma is replaced with a British woman of vaguely Pakistani or Indian ethnicity, with an Eastender's accent. Not really necessary, but Borma is minor even among the secondary characters in the series--I don't recall ever seeing his backstory in either series, for example, while the rest of the team has an "origins" episode of his own. Also, the screenwriters probably wanted to broaden the appeal to other audiences.
In any case, this is good enough that I'll pay to see it again on the big screen, and this is also something that I'll buy to have in my library. And given the amount of existing content in the anime series and movies, I think there will be a sequel ere long.
Prost!
Brad
I know nothing about Ghost in the Shell, but this sounds like a take-off on Robocop:
...the first successful cyborg (human brain in a completely synthetic body....), who is driven by.... strong sense of duty....., but who is also plagued by flashbacks to fragments of memories .....
I liked the Robocop series. I can wait until this one makes it to HBO or whatever. Looks like it might be entertaining. I liked that movie "Lucy". But any actress could have played the lead. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_(2014_film)
Walt
...the first successful cyborg (human brain in a completely synthetic body....), who is driven by.... strong sense of duty....., but who is also plagued by flashbacks to fragments of memories .....
I liked the Robocop series. I can wait until this one makes it to HBO or whatever. Looks like it might be entertaining. I liked that movie "Lucy". But any actress could have played the lead. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_(2014_film)
Walt
theBaron
Major
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- 10,308
Well, "Robocop" premiered in 1987, and Masamune wrote the graphic novel in 1989, and he may very well have been aware of the movie. But beyond the idea of a cyborg, it's a completely different story, and one that goes much deeper into concepts of existence and what it means to be human. A basic premise in Masamune's world is that cyberization is that technology has progressed to the point where cyberization is common-place. It's the remedy for many of the illnesses that today we can only treat with surgery, radiation or chemotherapy. It's not that the Major is the first cyborg, she just represents the pinnacle of cyberization.
Also, if we want to try and find the first instance of a story of artificial intelligence, or of an inanimate object being animated with a human-like spirit, and of the moral issues of natural and artificial intelligence, to Asimov's "I, Robot", or even further, back to Karel Czapek's, "R.U.R", published in 1920, which introduced the word "robot" both to our language and to science fiction, or to Fritz Lang's 1927 film, "Metropolis", which also deals with those themes, among others.
So, both stories have a common element, but that element goes back much further, which is common in science fiction. A similar discussion can be had about Stephen King's "The Running Man"; in fact, some have accused him of plagiarizing the story from earlier works like the 1970 German TV movie, "Das Millionenspiel" ("The Million-Dollar Game"), among others, all of which are basically a retelling of the 1924 short story, "The Most Dangerous Game".
Asimov's "Foundation" trilogy can be said to be Gibbon's "Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire", set in space.
I think to call Ghost in the Shell a "take-off" is not really justified.
Prost!
Brad
hotel3alpha
Command Sergeant Major
- Joined
- May 24, 2013
- Messages
- 2,055
Gents,
...The Baron has dropped the mic...
John from Texas
...The Baron has dropped the mic...
John from Texas
theBaron
Major
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2008
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- 10,308
That's a Count, though. "One, one post in de t'read, ah, ha ha ha. Two! Two posts in de t'read, ah, ha ha ha! T'ree! T'ree posts in dis t'read, ah, ha ha ha ha ha!"
theBaron
Major
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You mean the Tachikomas. No, they're not in this story. They were in the original graphic novel, and they were featured in the two series, but they weren't in the original movie that provides most of the content of the story. There is a spider tank, but that was part of the original movie, though.
Yeah, the Tachikoma voices drive me nuts, too, and I always skip the "Tachikomatic Daze" feature at the end of each episode in the TV series. But the Japanese must love 'em. An amazing culture, a mixture of sublime simplicity and beauty, and some really dumb stuff, too.
Prost!
Brad